


Reconfiguration

by waterscroll



Category: Hakuouki
Genre: Canon-Typical Disturbing Themes, F/F, Gender Issues, Heisuke route, Loyalty, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Post-Canon, Pregnancy, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 07:03:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16676878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterscroll/pseuds/waterscroll
Summary: Four times Sen drank Kimigiku’s blood (and one time someone else did).  Sen and Kimigiku learn to live with their changing world and changing selves.





	Reconfiguration

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sqbr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sqbr/gifts).



> Set after Heisuke's route - actually after the old version of the route, in which Sen promises to have Kazama's child. There is Kazama/Sen in this fic in that they have sex in order to make a baby but it's not a romantic relationship.
> 
> I wasn't sure whether or not to put in a warning for internalized homophobia or transphobia, there may be some depending on how you read things.
> 
> Many thanks to sqbr for the prompt and for inspiring me to think about the Sen/Kimigiku relationship.

1\. Forest

The world was changing, reconfiguring alliances all around the demons of Yase. The shogunate had lost its power, falling in a terrible war. The venom with which the snake had poisoned the Princess was a weapon in that war, one from which not even Yase was safe.

They were only one day from Sendai when the hair of the Princess turned white. One moment she was by Kimigiku’s side, walking strong, the next she was gasping, leaning on a tree. In a moment Kimikigu had an arm around her, supporting her. The next moment the Princess was pulling her close, unnaturally strong. Her eyes were wild and she grasped at her and at the tree. “Blood,” she whispered, the only word she could manage.

Kimigiku had not allowed herself the illusion that this would not happen. It was inevitable from the moment the lunatic peasant had infected her with his fury nature. She had become an abomination, lost to herself. Kimigiku was honor-bound to take the life of the Princess, even at the cost of her own, that she may die an honorable princess of demons. And that Kimigiku had not done.

“Come,” she said, reaching out for the Princess. They needed few words. With her short sword Kimigiku sliced into her upper arm. With her other arm she held her close, her hand stroking at her hair. “I will be there for you, with my body and blood,” she whispered. “It is what I have sworn.” Sen’s tongue stroked and caressed her, like light skipping over the broken places inside.

2\. Palace

As with humans, half of all children born to demons are girls. But when girls come of age they are offered a cup of roots. If they take it they become men and gain the strength and bodies of demon men. Most girls choose the cup and so women demons are rare. It cannot be reversed.

Demon clans are small and need the strength of their men to protect them. The loss of demon women’s wombs can feel like a necessary sacrifice. Kimigiku was a fighter, and was sworn to protect the clan, but when she was passed the cup she refused to take it. She couldn’t even explain why, since she did not long for children. She told herself it didn’t matter: speed was more important than strength, in the style in which she trained, and stealth more important than speed. She trained at being stealthy and quick.

Could a male demon have defended the Princess, she wondered? Would it have made the difference, if she had taken the cup? Kazama hadn’t been able to save her alone either, so perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered. Perhaps if she had trained harder, or been more skilled.

Kimigiku’s training was in stealth, though, and that had some advantages. If she couldn’t save the Princess then, in her own way she could save her now. Three drops of her own blood in the tea that the Princess drinks at formal occasions. Four drops in the sleeping tincture before bed. It always had to be hidden. If the Princess were to be seen consuming blood she would lose the loyalty of her kingdom. And she could not be allowed to fall into bloodlust where anyone could see, no matter the cost or the risk. So Kimigiku pricked herself carefully and secretly and thought about the Princess, her mouth lapping at Kimigiku’s arm in the forest.

3\. Bedroom

Kazama came for the Princess, as he had said he would, to ask her to fulfil her promise to give him a child. Full court was held and a contract drawn up. Since she would not consent to marry Kazama and raise their child together, eventually it was settled that they would attempt to produce two children, the first to stay in Yase and the second to be raised by Kazama. At Sen’s insistence the contract recorded that she would consent to no more than one act of intercourse per month, at a time of her choosing, only when she knew she was ready to concieve. At other times he was not to visit her household. Kazama asked for a title in Yase and the Princess told him he was welcome to that of First Concubine, which made him scowl in a way that gave Kimigiku no little satisfaction.

At the appointed time he went into her and Kimigiku guarded the door in case the Princess should scream, but she heard nothing as the minutes passed. When Kazama emerged Kimigiku barely glanced at him before rushing in, closing the door behind her. Sen lay prone on the bed, her hair unbound. Kimigiku thought of the peasant Sanan pressing his foul lips on the Princess and wanted to take her sword and hurt the world. “Princess,” she said.

Sen said nothing, only reached for her. “I can bear it,” she said. “But would you…” She couldn’t finish the sentence. Kimigiku lay down next to her in the bed, loosening her own clothing so that the Princess could feel her skin. Sen placed her forehead between Kimigiku’s breasts and wrapped one arm around her waist.

It was then that Kimigiku knew that the Princess desired her. The rythm of her blood pulsing under Kimigiku’s hands, the catch of her breath on Kimigiku’s chest, the slight clutching of her hand on Kimigiku’s waist, all bore witness. Kimigiku was familiar with being the object of lust, she had experienced it enough in Shimabara. This was something else, a gift unimaginable in its value. Every soft breath was beyond gemstones in beauty. She thought to bend her mouth to catch a breath in her lips but she did not dare to presume.

And then, in a moment, Sen’s breathing became ragged. Horns sprouted beneath Kimigiku’s fingers. Sen's need calmed her, asked of Kimigiku what she knew well how to give. “Don’t be afraid, Princess,” she said. “I’m here for you.” A quick sword-stroke across her chest and the Princess pressed her lips to the cut on Kimigiku’s breast. Kimigiku held her close, feeling the sweet pleasure of her Princess’s mouth on her body, her own beloved Princess alive and hungry in her arms.

4\. Grass

They had always trained together, but it was different now that the Princess was transformed by the Water of Life. Her strength was now like a demon man, and her blows were strong. It made them, if anything, more evenly matched. Speed was more important than strength, the way Kimigiku fought, and stealth more important than speed. She loved the new challenge of the way the Princess fought, like a male and yet not, because she was trained like a female, to use strategy rather than strength. Only, because of her duties as Princess, she was not quite as trained as Kimigiku.

The sun shone on them but caused the Princess no weakness.  It was a wonder, this new creature the Princess had become. She was pregnant, and would bear a child, and was strong like a male. Why was this a cause for shame?

They sparred for hours, on a grassy hill overlooking the sea, until at last it was time to rest and eat the lunch that Kimigiku had brought. There were fruits and juices and fish and rice and even a little fine sake. They sat close and ate from each other’s fingers. They had not yet made love but they would, Kimigiku knew. The Princess would decide her own time.

Sen lay on the grass and the sun was bright in her hair. Her mouth was stained from berries but it was only berries, not blood, and her smile banished all fear. “Okiku,” she said, “there is something I wish to ask of you.”

There was a peace there and she almost replied  _anything_ but sufficed with _yes _. “__ The place where I stabbed you,” the Princess said, “would you show it to me?”

It wasn’t what Kimigiku was expecting but she was happy to comply. She unwrapped herself to bare her abdomen. When the Princess placed her fingers on it there was no scar for her to trace.

“I thought you would never forgive me,” the Princess said. “I thought you’d kill me.”

“I know,” Kimigiku said. “I will never harm you. Princess.” She took her sword and cut herself where the wound had been, to let the Princess see it, feel it, taste it with her tongue.

“Not Princess here,” Sen whispered sometime later, before they drank their fill of each other. “And never to you.”

5\. Home

It was endearing how surprised Sen was that Kimigiku agreed to marry her. She had tripped over her own words getting it out, explaining that with no need to marry for progeny she could wed as she liked. Kimigiku just waited, holding Sen’s hand, kissing her fingers, until finally Sen’s rambles ended in something like a question. “So you will?” Sen said. “I mean will you?”

“Yes,” Kimigiku said, instantly, without hesitation. _Always._

The wedding was formal and complicated. It was slightly unusual for a Princess to marry a commoner, but the daughters of Suzuka Gozen married as they wished, and only for love. It was slightly more unusual for the Princess to be visibly pregnant at her own wedding, but Kimigiku swore that she would be mother to all of Sen’s children.

Sen’s daughter was born four months after the wedding and came into the world into Kimigiku’s arms. The girl was sickly and as much as she nursed she failed to grow. Doctors couldn’t understand why. Kimikigu watched and then a thought came to her, or perhaps an uncertainty. She sent the doctors from the room, parted the tip of her nipple with her sword, then took the girl in her arms. Sen and Kimigiku watched as she sucked eagerly, hungrily, the blood from Kimigiku’s breast.

“What is she?” Sen asked, afraid, understanding.

There was a world coming that Kimigiku couldn’t imagine. Everything was starting to change, reconfiguring even their bodies. Sen was a kind of being that had never before been, a demon who was also a fury. Her daughter was yet another kind of creature. There was no protecting Yase from the change happening all around them, change that was now in their bodies. Sen was her life, and her child was their child. Kimigiku knew that she would have enough blood for both of them.

“Something wonderful,” Kimigiku said. Because she was, and she would be, this miracle of a girl that somehow was her family. She placed her head on her wife’s chest and they held their daughter together.


End file.
